Just about everyone looks forward to retirement. The day you finally get to hang up your hat for good and break free of the 9-to-5 is a cause for celebration! It represents the beginning of the rest of your life, spent doing what you want to do instead of what you have to in order to earn a living. Of course, there are some things you’ll need to pay attention to, even if you’re retired! 

One of those things is keeping a close watch on your health. It might very well be the most important for anyone who wants to enjoy their retirement for as long as possible. Our bodies change as we get older, and this often means finding that it’s difficult to do things we were once able to do with ease. Creating a wellness plan to ensure your healthcare needs are met therefore becomes a vital component of any retirement plan. Lucky for you that moving to an independent living community can help you seal the deal on living healthy and better! 

The Retirement Wellness Plan 

So what, exactly, is a retirement wellness plan? There are a couple of contexts here. One would be financial wellness. This plays an important role, of course, as seniors need the resources to live in comfort and security. Yet at the same time, financial wellness is only one part of the equation. The other is physical wellness, and that’s just as crucial to enjoying a long and fulfilling retirement. In this context, a wellness plan is all about staying healthy and living better. 

 Click here to learn what you (financially) need to retire comfortably. 

Wellness plans involve more than just going to the family doctor for a checkup once every six months or so; instead, it involves a full, proactive plan on how to keep you as strong, fit, and healthy as possible throughout the length of your retirement. A good wellness plan takes into account any physical limitations as you age as well as any current health concerns that might need management, in order to create an engaged support plan for your health. 

Supporting the Whole Person 

Before we go any further, we should talk about how there are different types of wellness when it comes to your health. There’s not just physical wellness – there’s also emotional wellness, social wellness, and cognitive wellness as well, and each of these components is intertwined in ways that cannot be ignored. What this means for you is that any wellness plan that seeks to address your health has to pay close attention to each and every one of these aspects to ensure you’re living your best retirement life. 

Click here to learn 7 must-do exercises for baby boomers and seniors. 

What does such a wellness plan look like in practice? It’s one that involves not just regular trips to the doctor to monitor and manage any physical issues –it should also address your needs for social interaction, mental stimulation, and emotional fulfillment. A good wellness plan supports the whole person. Now, let’s learn why retirement communities might be just what the doctor ordered when it comes to this holistic approach to wellness in retirement. 

Wellness Plan Support: How a Retirement Community Can Provide for Good Health 

A great number of seniors choose to move to an independent living community once they retire. There are many advantages to doing so, such as downsizing your existing home to reduce living costs (retirement communities are often less expensive to live in than aging in place). But that’s not the only reason a retirement community can be an excellent choice – they can also support a retirement wellness plan in almost all of the ways necessary for good health. 

Thanks to the resort-like nature of the retirement communities such as those from Acts Retirement-Life Communities, retirees have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to amenities that can support their health. Walking trails, swimming pools, and fitness centers (and accompanying trainers and physical therapists) offer dozens of opportunities to lead an active, healthy lifestyle. 

Meanwhile, activity centers such as arts and crafts rooms and wood workshops offer intellectual and artistic stimulation and the thrill of learning a new hobby or honing an old one, helping to keep minds sharp and engaged.  Along with these activity centers, the communal nature of a retirement center’s clubhouse, with its libraries and game rooms, also offers plenty of opportunities to socialize and forge emotional bonds with other residents. It’s this way that a retirement community can help support better overall health and wellness in residents. 

Click here to read about the 7 ways an independent living community benefits health and wellness. 

Living a Happy, Healthy Retirement 

No one is going to tell you that you have to slow down in your retirement if you don’t want to. If you want to enjoy all the things you never could while you were still living your workday life, that’s what retirement is for, after all! At the same time, however, you do have to acknowledge the fact that you’re not such a spring chicken anymore. Everyone changes as they age – yes, even you – and that means your physical, social, cognitive, and emotional needs change as well. 

Pay attention to these needs. Take steps to ensure you’re getting the exercise and stimulation you need to live a long, healthy retirement by creating a wellness plan and sticking to it. Finally, consider the many benefits that an independent living community can provide you when it comes to supporting that wellness plan. Stick to that wellness plan and you can show those young folks that age really is just a number after all! 

In these uncertain times, Acts Retirement-Life Communities is here to help. For more information on retirement or how to plan your next chapter in a recession, read these articles by Acts Retirement-Life Communities: 

• What is the Average Cost of a Senior Independent Living Community? 
• How to Prepare for a Recession if You Are Retired 
• Should I Sell My Home During a Recession?